> > Did you use camera with film before? (Someone mentioned that recently) > > I have done lots of astrophotography with film before ... lunar cycle, eclipses, > features .... > I meant to capture satellites transitting the moon (or just black space) ... > > short time on each one. Have you tried your setup without the moon being in > > My only other attempts without the moon have involved the ISS which I have > captured successfully ... there is also the iridium flares but those are a > different beast ... > > > the area? What is the magnitude limit for satellite photography with > > comparable angular speed? > > This is something I have no idea ... I meant you should try to see that your setup has a CHANCE of imaging a satellite passing the Moon. > > > As for dark satellites silhouetted against a bright(er) moon, it needs very > > high contrast, and I can not imagine it being photographed, because the > > satellite obscures such a small area for a short (?) interval on each frame. > > My philosophy here (and this is where my failed attempts are concentrated) is > that with a 1- to 2-second pass across the lunar surface, there should be ample > time for acquisition and photography. The transit on Thursday is good in the > sense that the transitting satellite (mag +4.8) which travel across both the > dark and illuminated parts which is an opportunity for training my eye on what > to expect across the two types of backgrounds. > But the eye is different from film and CCD. If you have 600 pixels across the Moon, each one is roughly 6*6 km. At 750 km range, that is 12*12 m. So, even if the satellite has an effective albedo five times the Moon's, it would need 28 sq.m. to match its intensity. And a dark satellite of 6*6 m would only remove ~25% of the Moon's light during 1/600 s. - how long is your camera's exposure time/frame ? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 12 2001 - 14:03:20 PDT